College students protesting Trump in march to L.A. City Hall
Students at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park planned to walk out of their classrooms and march more than seven miles to City Hall on Wednesday afternoon to protest President-elect Donald Trump, according to social media posts.
The walkout, dubbed “We Make America Great” was planned for 11 a.m., with students planning to rally on the Avenida Cesar Chavez campus before beginning their long walk to City Hall at noon, according to a flyer posted on Facebook by the John Delloro Transfer Program in Social Justice, an East Los Angeles College program that works with students who plan to transfer to universities.
The group encouraged other schools to participate as well.
“This is a peaceful protest, no violence whatsoever,” the John Delloro program wrote on Facebook. “We stand for the rights of our student peers and of communities of color, undocumented communities, immigrant communities, LGBTQ communities, women and anyone feeling threatened by the election results.”
Video posted on Twitter showed students marching from campus carrying Mexican flags and handmade signs and chanting, “Ain’t no power like the power of the people ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop.”
Students also rallied Wednesday afternoon on the campus of Pierce College in Woodland Hills.
During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexican border, an increase in deportations of people in the country illegally and a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
His election has prompted protests across the country. Nearly 4,0000 students from 18 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District walked out of their classrooms on Monday, according to Steven Zipperman, chief of the L.A. School Police Department.
L.A. Unified Supt. Michelle King issued a statement earlier in the week urging students to remain on campus.
“These are important conversations that need to take place,” she said. “We want our students to know they are not alone. However, it is critical that students not allow their sentiments to derail their education or for their actions to place them in danger.”
She said that they could talk about their concerns in school and that the district is working to give them a forum with assemblies and classroom dialogues.
Twitter: @haileybranson
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UPDATES:
1:05 p.m. This article was updated with more details about the City Hall protest and an additional protest at Pierce College.
This article was originally published at 12:35 p.m.
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